But I’m not referring to apps by broad-based chains, like a Starwood or a Hilton app. No, individual hotels are contracting with programmers to create single-property apps.

I don’t see the point.

I’m generally in favor of making things available online, and I, too, have embraced the mobile web. I like the idea of, say, ordering room service using my phone or laptop. (Though I also see room for abuse by pranksters, or worse, if the web-based application doesn’t have some way of sorting out who the real guest is. Knock knock… “You ordered 20 lobster dinners, sir?”)

So I’m all for going mobile. But why would I want to bother downloading an app that’s limited in its functionality to a single hotel?

Maybe if I lived at that hotel for months of the year, but if I’m just staying for a few nights, then I don’t want to clutter my phone with an app I might use once or twice and then never use again?

Apparently hotels think so. In the last month, I’ve gotten several hotels’ PR pitches, proudly announcing their new mobile services online. And each breathless press release has proudly touted an app. I just keep thinking the hotel is wasting its time and money.

If hotels want to make their services accessible to guests online, great. But just make the website mobile-browser-friendly. Skip the app.

Upgraded: Flights from NYC to Tokyo
American Airlines is launching flights from New York JFK to Tokyo Haneda Airport. Haneda, which is closer to downtown Tokyo, not Narita, the primary international airport.

Downgraded, then Upgraded: United grounds, then fixes, its 757s
United grounded all 96 of its Boeing 757s yesterday, to perform required emergency updates to all the planes’ air data computers. A day later, the airline reported that only 15 flights were nixed, and that all planes were back online.

Upgraded: One-way rentals out of Florida
If you’re in Florida and looking to leave the state between April and June, Hertz is serving up one-way out-of-Florida rentals for merely $5 a day. Rates are good for a limited range of destination states, and for a max of 14 days, but $5 is cheap. No one-way drop-off fees, either. Snowbirds bring the car in, you bring it out. This isn’t necessarily something for everyone, but if it meets your needs, go for it. (via)

Downgraded: Hot cheese
Beware of hot cheese when you travel. Seriously. The headline: “Disney in Hot Cheese Lawsuit.” It’s quite sad, actually, for the kid who got hurt. Poor child, but wow, what a sentence: “[Walt Disney Parks and Resorts] has just received the lawsuit from a Californian couple who say their four-year-old Isaiah Harris was injured at Cosmic Ray’s Starlite Café [at Orlando's Magic Kingdom] when he toppled into a scalding hot cup of cheese that had been prepared for pouring over nachos.”

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Upgraded: Ideas for bad Hollywood movies
Downgraded: Congolese carry-on inspections
Headline: “Crocodile on plane kills 19 passengers“… I immediately had visions of a crocodile biting its way through the passenger list. But the truth is more unfortunate. A crocodile hidden in a carry-on bag gets loose, people panic, plane goes out of balance, aircraft crashes. Very sad. And preventable.

Downgraded: Cruise ship pricing
The cruise ship lines are taking a page from the airlines and going a la carte with their services, slowly but surely whittling away at the “all-inclusive” pricing plans that were the hallmark of cruising. Sure, there have been upcharges for shore excursions, but now you have to pay up for certain meals, services, and options. Looks like easyCruise‘s fully-a-la-carte model may not be so farfetched after all. (Thanks, Bill!)

Upgraded: Cross-selling of Hotwire inventory on Expedia
Expedia is now widely selling Hotwire’s hotel inventory as “unpublished rates.” Like on Hotwire, the hotels won’t be listed by name, just by star-level and city zone. Since Expedia and Hotwire are part of the same parent company, I’m surprised it’s taken this long.

Upgraded: The last frontier of domestic inflight wifi
Aircell’s Gogo service has launched inflight wifi within the state of Alaska, for those traveling on Alaska Airlines. For now, the service only exists between Anchorage and Fairbanks, and Alaska Airlines is giving it away for free. It’s slated to be complimentary until the entire state is blanketed with signal availability.

Upgraded: Traveler seat-selection stereotypes
The folks at Hunch have found significant personality and life-experience differences between those who prefer aisle seats vs. window seats. It’s based on poll data. ME, I prefer the window seat, not just because it makes napping easier, because I never tire of looking out the window and staring down from 35,000 feet. And yet, my vita reads much more like the aisle passenger’s. Call me an outlier.

Upgraded: Hilton spas
Hilton is relaunching their hotel spas globally under a new name: “eforea.” Hilton guests will be able to find a common menu of spa services at about 80 spas around the world, beginning with the first property in Short Hills, New Jersey. (All that mall-walking is very taxing, apparently.) With its titular riff off the word “euphoria,” I hope the experience lives up to the name.

Upgraded: SkyTeam
SkyTeam will get a South American member if the planned accession of Aerolineas Argentinas goes through. South America has been a gap in the alliance’s route map, so this is a plus.

Upgraded: Life chances of the Tonga Room
Back in May, I posted about San Francisco’s storied Tonga Room lounge, which faced closure. It may be rescued, but it won’t be in the same place. The hotel has a letter of intent “with a local successful restaurateur who will buy the Tonga Room and move it to a new, as-yet-undetermined site,” said Sam Lauter, a consultant for the Fairmont San Francisco. That’s not exactly preservation, but the ur-kitsch of the place will live on, I suppose.

(image of the Datel Communications Car (and guy))

Each chain will offer two options, each rich in interior design verbiage:

Newly-updated Sheratons will be either “Revival” (“inspired by the Regency Revival of the early 20th century… furniture profiles have curved corners and textiles have curved interlocking patterns – all of which are complemented by the design’s rich color palette of camel and tan with accents of plum and black”) or “Heritage” (“inspired by the historic Regency period of the late 18th and early 19th century, when Thomas Sheraton created timeless furniture designs that are still used in interiors today… Notched arch details are featured in most furnishings and complemented by geometric patterns in the room’s textiles and carpets”). The photo above is an example of a Sheraton room. I can’t really discern whether it’s “Revival” or “Heritage.” Place your wagers.

The Westin design will similarly come in two flavors: “Classic” (“…takes inspiration from forms of Art Deco. The visual vocabulary is grounded in classicism but modernized through the selection of furniture pieces and color palette… Materials featured in the new room reference those found in natural settings including open grained walnut stained a dark chocolate brown with a satin finish and soft tones inspired by the outdoors…”) and “Modern” (“…contemporary, timeless sensibility without being trendy. Concise, linear qualities give the modern scheme an architectural feel. The guestroom is softened with organic textures that have subtle patterns and sustainable materials that are neutral in color.”)

That’s a lot of words. I still strain to make these descriptions tangible.

At the end of the day, it’s still nice to see the hotels refreshing their designs and incorporating some helpful efficiencies into the mix.

The neatest feature in the Westin room is a pull-out laptop table that doubles as a room service tray. Modularity!

The Sheraton rooms also have a modular theme: The ottomans slide underneath the armchairs to save space when you’re not stretching out your legs.

LED lighting (including night lights and reading lights) are part of the designs, too.

So where can you expect to see these designs? The first Westin hotels with new room designs will be the Westin Phoenix (opening February 2011) and the Westin Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego (undergoing renovation in early 2011). The first Sheraton hotels to be updated are the Sheraton Red Deer in Alberta (opening early 2011) and the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center (to be renovated in early 2011).

What are the steps the careful traveler should take?

• Unmake the bed
  Check the bed for the nasty critters by pulling the sheets back. Look for tiny bugs, especially near the seams. Lift the mattress and look for bugs between in the space between the boxspring and the mattress.
• Inspect the furniture
  Once you’ve checked the bed, lift the cushions in the furniture and look for bugs. Again, special attention on the seams.
• Drawers, too
  Open the drawers. Look for scurrying.
• Quarantine the bags
  When you walk into the room, leave your bags near the door for starters. Once you’ve given the all-clear to the bed and furniture, bring the bags in, but use the foldable luggage rack. Pull it away from the wall. Keep the luggage zipped, if you can.

If you do find a bug, alert the front desk and — it goes without saying — demand a different room. If you feel the urge for revenge, there are websites that allow travelers to name hotels where guests allegedly were bitten — BedBugRegistry and BedBugReports — but I am frankly skeptical of their utility. Much like TripAdvisor reviews can be gamed by competitors, these submissions on these sites aren’t entirely free from ulterior motives.

Anyway, have you changed your behavior? Do you tear the sheets off the bed and conduct room inspections? Or do you let it ride? Vote in the poll below, and hit the comments with your stories.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Once you’ve voted, please enjoy this short film by the venerable Isabella Rosselini on the subject of bedbugs, and their lifecycle. Note: Once seen, it cannot be unseen.

The way it works: If you tweet one of their offers, you get “up to 25 points.” (“Up to.” Ahem.) If your tweet makes a sale, you get 250 points. They tell you what to tweet about, though not the exact wording of your message.

If you gather 10,000 points you’ll have a free night at the Venetian (which I’ve seen for as low as $99 on Priceline, or $130 on Jetsetter, for what it’s worth).

Alternatively, you can cash in your points for other goods and services, such as a free dessert for 250 points, a free beer for 80 points, or nightclub admission for 500 points. Whoo.

At the end of the day, I think this is a stupid idea. On the one hand it’s ripe for abuse by people who create Twitter accounts, build up a bunch of spammy followers, and then start tweeting ferociously to cash in on these points. More likely, converting your account to an advertising stream risks ticking off social media aficionados who look for interaction and community, rather than marketing. Are the skimpy rewards really worth alienating your friends?

And will the Federal Trade Commission require disclosure of the reason for these tweets, as it requires bloggers to reveal sponsored posts and freebies? Inquiring minds want to know…

I hesitate to provide a link to the actual signup page for this nonsense, but in the spirit of through reporting, here you go.

And no, in case you’re wondering, I’m not getting any kickbacks here for mentioning this, and I’m not signing up my Twitter handle. My ethics and policies page is, as always, available for your perusal. If ever I decide that I want to start tweeting my way to an 80-point beer, I’ll be sure to reveal it fully.

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Some hotels are trying to cut costs by offering their guests a rebate for saying no to the housekeeper. Here’s the hangtag from the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, offering $5 or 500 SPG points in lieu of a made bed:

Interestingly, for those who opt to take a pass on housekeeping, the actual voucher slipped under your door makes no mention of the Starpoints option. They only offer the food/beverage credit. (Not to worry: Writing your name and number on the card and handing the card in at the front desk will yield the points…)

Thumbs up for this option. I really like the idea of a rebate for opting out of the service, rather than imposing a housekeeping fee for opting in, the way easyhotel has done.

I don’t need my bed made daily, and I’m not that much of a slob that I need daily vacuuming.

And for me, the 500 daily Starpoints is worth more than $5 credit at Starbucks, since I milk far more than a penny per point…

Upgraded: Pushback against Homeland Security searches
If you arrive in the United States from overseas, your laptop, cellphone, or other electronic device is treated as if it were a suitcase, subject to search and seizure. It’s as if your data is a bag of dirty clothes inside your bag. Why? You’re in the gray area of the customs area — not quite admitted to the United States, but still on United States soil — so there has been no clarity in the question of whether constitutional protections against warrantless and unreasonable searches are applicable or not. Now, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, challenging the department’s authority to search and seize electronic equipment “without reasonable suspicion.” I’m looking forward to a court clearing this up, and rooting for the ACLU here.

Downgraded: Travel for American citizens
A fringe pastor in a tiny church in Florida threatens to burn Korans — and then backs down — but the damage is done, and the State Department is relegated to issuing a global travel alert for American citizens traveling overseas. Just awesome.

Upgraded: Rationale for lousy interior design
Vegas hotels go for the razzle-dazzle… but why are the casino carpets so hideously awful? It’s not a bug, it’s a feature: Ugly casino carpets lead to more gambling. And I thought that gaudy designs and bright colors subconsciously led to faster turnover, like at brightly-colored fast food restaurants?…

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Many people don’t realize that Ritz-Carlton is actually a Marriott brand, and the new rewards program shines a light on this fact. The actual corporate ownership is something that’s always been kept on the down-low for guests, perhaps because it would be somehow unseemly for a Ritz-Carlton to be in the same league, if only by association, with the Fairfield Inn that’s just off the road from exit 10 on the New Jersey Turnpike. Please! This is the Ritz, after all! The Ritz doesn’t do turnpikes!

But yet… here we are.

Since there are only 70 Ritz-Carlton’s worldwide, the program offers you the opportunity to earn at sister properties in the Marriott program, at the same earning rates as the Marriott program.

But you can’t be a member of both the Ritz program and the Marriott program. You will have to choose your allegiance. Conversion from Marriott to Ritz will be possible 1:1.

On the one hand, Ritz-Carlton is finally offering something in the way of rewards. Something beats nothing. Until now, Ritz service was the reward, full stop.

But on the other hand, what’s the point? Who is the target market here? Corporate travelers who are Marriott loyalists, and want to upgrade? High end business travelers who might tip the scale toward Ritz if given the choice of a Ritz and a Four Seasons? (This is probably the answer.)

And who would join the Ritz program, vs. joining (or staying in) the Marriott program? While the full details aren’t quite official yet, there have been some leaks. For those seeking to redeem points for stays, it may not be a big deal at all. (30 to 60,000 points per night? Ouch.)

But if you’re looking to cash in points for an experience, and not just another night in a hotel room, and you have more points than you know what to do with, then you may find the program interesting:

The Ritz-Carlton Rewards’ partners offer unique access available only to members, including Abercrombie & Kent members-only tours in locations such as China, Turkey and Egypt; special customer events and a half-day personal shopping experience with fashion experts at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman featuring a private consultation, fashion presentation, lunch, facial and make-up application and the opportunity to redeem points toward wedding gowns and other select products from the world of celebrated designer Vera Wang. Another special opportunity for members will be four-day photography workshops with National Geographic’s renowned photographers at Ritz-Carlton hotels and resorts in locations such as San Francisco and Miami. Members will also be able to redeem points for flights on 30 of the world’s major airlines and luxury cruise lines, including Crystal Cruises, The Yachts of Seabourn and Silversea.

But even with those higher-end luxury experiences, the rest of the program sounds like a repackaging of the existing Marriott program structure. So what’s really the niche that needs filling here? If you’re duplicating the Marriott program, just duplicate the whole thing and create a “Ritz tier” or such.

It’s not yet clear to me whether this is a move of recession-induced desperation or a stroke of genius that will give the hotel brand a leg up on its high-end competitors, like Four Seasons. Let’s check back in few quarters and see…